Jagielka: It's in our hands

England defender Phil Jagielka insists the team are in a positive frame of mind as they prepare to face two final World Cup qualifiers which will determine whether Roy Hodgson's men will be travelling to Rio next summer.

Published 8th October 2013

England have been training at St George's Park in Burton on Tuesday ahead of Friday's showdown with

Back-to-back victories against Montenegro on Friday and Poland next Tuesday will sweep England into next year's World Cup finals in Brazil.

Four points would also be enough if Ukraine fail to overcome Poland in Kiev on Friday, but anything less and England will find themselves in the play-offs or, even worse, eliminated altogether.

However, that is not something Jagielka is contemplating.

"We should have got it done and dusted by now but obviously that's not the case," the Everton captain said.

"But we're still looking at it from a very positive angle. The two results we need, it's in our hands, and we're looking at booking that flight to Rio."

Although Jagielka is aware it would be wrong to underestimate a Montenegro side who have surprised many in Group H, and are not out of the running for a place in Rio, he is confident England have the players to cope with the task ahead.

"I was there when we drew the game away at Montenegro, as a team they've got a fantastic unit together," said Jagielka.

"They put us under a lot of pressure, they are progressing and they're confident as well.

"They're going into this game as confident as us due to the fact they've picked up draws against us before, and they're still in with a chance of trying to qualify themselves.

"We all know the task that lies ahead. I think there are quite a few people who've got the experience of being in similar situations before, so they've got big roles to play.

"We've also got some young lads with fantastic ability, so we're massively confident we can go out there and put on a good performance which can hopefully produce goals."